Monday, August 4, 2008

I love the choice of Bill Richardson for every reason mentioned in this Denver Post Editorial. I don't understand why he doesn't have more buzz - I guess because he's Latino. But I love the idea, and I think it would go really well with Sen. Obama's message.

My first thought when I read that Gov. Richardson was holding two fundraisers for Sen. Clinton was that they were trying to make Gov. Richardson more acceptable to her die hard supporters. Wouldn't it be the perfect place to announce him as VP? I mean, nothing says UNITY more! I don't hear him mentioned at all, but I would love an Obama/Richardson ticket just as much as an Obama/Schweitzer ticket.

I just saw Roger Simon on Crossfire claiming that "respectable reporters" pounded John McCain on his false claim about Sen. Obama canceling his troop visit. Do tell what channel these reporters were on?

Just watched this video from Elkhart, Indiana's Truth newspaper. My favorite part was the woman waiting in line for her ninety-year-old mother, a life-long Republican, who wanted to check out Sen. Obama. Again, this is what happens when Democrats actually show up and talk to Republicans - they listen.

It's like when Rush Limbaugh refers to feminists as Femi-Nazis. When did feminists ever commit genocide - that would be never. When did the super-delegates and voters choosing Sen. Obama over Sen. Clinton become a violent, forcible act that completely demeans another person - that would be never.

It's funny, I go entire months without mentioning Harry Connick, Jr., but today we spend the whole lunch period discussing him and other famous New Orleanians, and then low and behold... he's singing Happy Birthday to Sen. Obama.

I thought that the McCain campaign was going to announce their VP pick directly before/as Sen. Obama was accepting the nomination. While this would be shallow and petty, their campaign has embraced that mentality, so it seemed reasonable.

However, it appears that they are going to use the VP pick to drown out another news story - President Bush's speech at the Republican Convention.

It is interesting to me that White voters considered Obama's words to be racist, given that they don't pass the general threshold of racism in American public discourse, which is that nothing can be racist unless it explicitly and overtly expresses malice and hatred towards a racial group. Obama's comments were way to subtle for that, but presumably were covered under the "Black speaker" exception where anything that a Black person says that ties to race or otherness automatically is presumed to be a playing of the race card. And that gets transformed into "racism" because there is nothing more racist than a Black person ever insinuating that there is anything racist in what White people do.

So, while the "big news" is Rasmussen showing McCain up 47-46 (with leaners), Gallup daily shows Obama up 46-43. This is exactly why we can't cite polling data that is within the margin of error. It's not "proof" of anything aside from the race being close. Also, do not act like this is a national election, because it's not - it's 50 state-level elections. National popularity means nothing - just ask Al Gore. This is why the Fifty State Strategy is the only rational way to look at the election.

It's nice to see that Lt. Col. Allen West, the Black Republican up for Congress in FL-22 hates his own race:

West seems perfectly suited to soothe a certain type of older voter who intellectually dislikes racism but also fears the black-church-attending Obama. "I never grew an Afro," he tells a cluster of fans at the Coconut Creek retirement village. "I always had a nice little crew cut."

In other words, he denies the "racial" elements of himself in order to make white people more comfortable. That's nice.

Nearly six in 10 white and black workers said they think undocumented workers take jobs away from those here legally; seven in 10 Hispanics disagreed. (Nearly half of the Hispanic workers interviewed in this poll are not U.S. citizens.)